Signing BC Land Transfer Documents

The signing or execution of BC’s Land Title documents is pretty straight forward. Generally we will only be concerned with the proper signing of the Form A Transfer and Form B Mortgage.

There is a third document, being the Property Transfer Tax Form, however it does not need to be signed as precisely.

IF THERE ARE QUESTIONS, PLEASE CALL US SO WE GET THE LAND TRANSFER DOCUMENTS SIGNED CORRECTLY

The “signing sections” of both the Form A Transfer and Form B Mortgage are basically the same in that there are three sections that need to be completed properly, being the “Officer’s Certification“, “Date” and “Signature“. Please go to the Form A Transfer or Form B Mortgage to see the relevant signing section.

The normal signing sequence is as follows:

1. Determine whether the person who is going to witness your signature is an acceptable “Officer” respecting BC documents. In BC, the Officer is the official person before whom you can sign the documents. Most documents are signed before a Lawyer or Notary Public; they are acceptable. Other acceptable “Officers” are as set out in the Evidence Act of British Columbia. CLICK HERE for a list of other acceptable Officers. Please ensure that your Officer is one of these people. The Officer, by witnessing your signature, is confirming the items set out in Part 5 of the Land Title Act of British Columbia.

2. The Officer may ask you to provide Identification. Generally, a Credit Card from a major Bank and your Driver’s Licence are sufficient. CLICK HERE for more forms of acceptable identification.

3. You then sign your name above the line bearing your name with your regular signature in the Signature section on the right hand side of the document.

4. You next complete the Date section, in the middle of the document, in year, month, day format, using only two digit numbers; no written words; example: “07 12 25”.

5. You then give the documents to the Officer who will complete the left hand side Officers Certification. The Officer must sign his name above the line, then print his name, address and occupation under the line. This is important to be completed correctly. Most Officers have stamps that have all of this information on it. CLICK HERE to read more details regarding the proper completion of the Officer’s Certification. The name of the Law Firm is not good enough.

If you are following this procedure, we have probably emailed or faxed you the necessary documents. Since we register over the Internet, we only need a scanned or faxed copy of the signed documents sent to us before we can proceed with registration. We also need the original documents sent to us, however this can happen later.

Respecting the BC Property Transfer Tax Form, the requirements are not as stringent. A view of the Property Purchase Tax Form shows the signing section at the bottom of page two. Basically, you need to sign your name, insert your phone number and then date it in the format set out. Sometimes we sign this form on behalf of our clients as their agent when they are not available to sign.